Discovery of the structure of DNA

April 25, 1953 · Cavendish Laboratory, Cambridge

James Watson and Francis Crick published the double-helix model of DNA in Nature, based partly on X-ray images by Rosalind Franklin and Maurice Wilkins. It explained how genetic information is copied and founded molecular biology.

On the map Contemporaries

Key people

Rosalind Franklin Chemist, Her X-ray image 'Photo 51' showed the helix

James Watson author

Francis Crick author

Participants

University of Cambridge — Watson and Crick worked at the Cavendish Laboratory
King's College London — Franklin, Gosling and Wilkins made the X-ray images